


Hijacked

by I May Age Regress (shnuffeluv)



Series: Gibbs' Family [11]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Abduction, Age Play, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Loss, Coloring, Coping Mechanisms, Crayons, Crime Scenes, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Interrogation, Kidnapping, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mildly Dubious Consent, Non-Sexual Age Play, Organized Crime, Pre-Series, Worried Gibbs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-23 01:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8308636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress
Summary: Everything is okay-ish at the crime scene, at least as much as a rotting corpse in a Maryland July can be okay. But then Tony hears the gunshots.





	1. Chapter 1

DiNozzo checked his watch for the 5th time in the past 10 minutes and sighed. He was standing out in the stifling heat in the middle of Gaithersburg, waiting for some crime scene techs from the local PD to take over the scene NCIS had been called down to. Someone had thought an admiral had been shot, but it just turned out to be a guy in a costume. The stripes on the sleeves didn't match with his hat, which he had pointed out right away, and now he deeply regretted doing so as he waited to switch jurisdiction. It was the middle of July, which didn't help matters. The body was getting ripe and all he wanted to do was get back to the office.

Something rustled in a nearby bush and DiNozzo turned toward it, hoping it was just a slightly skittish squirrel. He didn't want to beat a carnivore away from the body to keep its integrity.

There was a loud _CRACK_  from behind him, and he wondered what it was briefly before he felt fire travel up his arm. _Ah, it was a bullet_ , he thought to himself, glancing at his arm to assess the damage. Nothing seemed to be shot in that area, and with dread he looked further up. Sure enough, there was a hole through his shoulder joint. And it was bleeding. Profusely.

He realized he should probably put pressure on it, and moved his other arm up and pressed his hand against the hole in the front. It didn't do a very good job of stemming the bleeding. Though maybe that was because there was a second hole in the back of his shoulder that he couldn't cover with his hand.

He didn't even think to look behind him for the shooter until they were long gone. He pulled out his phone and dialed Gibbs. DiNozzo's thoughts were getting more and more disjointed, but someone had to come over and cover the crime scene if he lost too much blood and passed out. "Hey, boss," he said amiably when Gibbs picked up. "I kinda need someone else to help keep watch over the crime scene."

Gibbs growled on the other end. "Why, DiNozzo?"

"Oh, it's kind of a funny story! So first there was this sort of rustling thing in one of the bushes, and I thought it might be a small animal, but I think it was actually a distraction because when I turned to check on it there was a loud cracking noise. I think it came from a gun? It probably did because there's now a hole in my shoulder about the size of a bullet. And it's bleeding a lot. I'm not compromising the crime scene, I don't think, but someone should probably make sure the body isn't moved, y'know, because I might pass out."

"Tony? Are you all right?" Gibbs asked. There was startled yelling on his end of the line.

"I think so, except for the hole in my shoulder. Someone should probably look at that soon, but I...feel..."

There was another sickening _CRACK_  and Tony gasped as he felt another fire start, this time in his leg.

"Tony?! I'm coming right over, okay? C'mon, kiddo, stay with me now," Gibbs ordered. "I heard a gunshot, what happened?"

"...Leg..." Tony gasped, falling to his knees in the muddy ground. He watched with morbid fascination as blood dripping through his hands mixed with the mud. Red and brown, swirling together.

"Tony?! Tony, you have to stay with me kiddo. You promised me you'd look out for criminals, and that you wouldn't die, remember? Stay with me, talk to me!"

The phone slipped from Tony's fingers and he soared to the ground face-first. _I know you don't want me to die, Papa. But how do I know that I'm still alive?_  He blinked as he heard footsteps approach him, and black combat boots came into view. But Papa didn't wear combat boots. He tried moving the arm that wasn't pinned to the ground, before remembering that he got shot in its shoulder. And didn't Papa say something about not moving gunshot wounds?

The world started to go black, much as Tony desperately tried to cling to consciousness. The last thing he head was Papa's tinny voice yelling " _Tony_!" through his cell phone before he fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Gibbs' gut was churning. He didn't understand why. He had left DiNozzo at the crime scene to wait for Metro PD. Nothing he hadn't done before, and nothing that the agent couldn't handle. And yet, something felt _wrong_  to him. And when something felt wrong, it usually involved Tony nowadays.

Maybe he should call DiNozzo and make sure everything was all right.

His cell phone rang at that exact moment and Gibbs picked it up, ready to snap at whoever was on the other end of the line. "Hey, boss," DiNozzo said amiably when Gibbs picked up. "I kinda need someone else to help keep watch over the crime scene."

Gibbs' gut was kicking into overdrive, not that he could let DiNozzo know that. "Why, DiNozzo?"

"Oh, it's kind of a funny story! So first there was this sort of rustling thing in one of the bushes, and I thought it might be a small animal, but I think it was actually a distraction because when I turned to check on it there was a loud cracking noise. I think it came from a gun? It probably did because there's now a hole in my shoulder about the size of a bullet. And it's bleeding a lot. I'm not compromising the crime scene, I don't think, but someone should probably make sure the body isn't moved, y'know, because I might pass out."

Gibbs shot up out of his chair, earning a startled jump and rush for a gun from Viv. "Tony? Are you all right?" he asked frantically into the phone. _C'mon, kiddo, I need a response, if I can keep you talking, I know you're still conscious_.

"I think so, except for the hole in my shoulder. Someone should probably look at that soon, but I...feel..." Tony's response was sluggish. This was not good.

And, to make matters worse, Gibbs heard a gunshot over the line, right before Tony gasped. "Tony?! I'm coming right over, okay? C'mon, kiddo, stay with me now," Gibbs ordered. "I heard a gunshot, what happened?"

"...Leg..." Tony gasped.

So he was shot in the shoulder, _and_  the leg. This was not good. He could die from blood loss in those areas.

Tony could _die_.

Gibbs scrambled for his gun and holstered it, not even bothering to tell Viv to follow him to the elevator. He knew she would when he was this frantic. It was then Gibbs realized he had to keep Tony talking. "Tony?! Tony, you have to stay with me kiddo. You promised me you'd look out for criminals, and that you wouldn't die, remember? Stay with me, talk to me!"

He didn't get a response for 1, 2, 3 seconds. He could have crushed his phone were it not his lifeline to his boy. "Tony?! Tony!"

He punched the number for the ground floor, and waited impatiently for the elevator to do it's job, all the while trying to get Tony to talk. "Tony, come on. Talk to me. That's an order! Talk to me! _Tony_!"

The line cut out and Gibbs' stomach dropped. He snapped his cell phone shut and ran a hand through his hair.

"Gibbs? What's going on?" Viv asked, uncertain.

"That was DiNozzo," Gibbs growled. "He's been shot at the crime scene."

Viv's eyes widened and she ran out of the elevator just as fast as Gibbs did when it opened. "Hopefully he'll be okay when we get there," she said.

"If he's there at all," Gibbs pointed out. "Someone could have taken him. The line was cut, at any rate."

"You don't think this has to do with the Alessi case we solved awhile ago, does it?"

Gibbs felt a strain of pure panic invade his thoughts. If this was about the Alessi case, he doubted Tony would be alive long enough for them to rescue him. The most they might be able to do is bring his body home. Gibbs jumped in one of the vans that wasn't currently in use and closed the door, slamming the gas as soon as Viv was inside.

If Tony died today, that was on _Gibbs_. And he wasn't one to let an agent die on his watch.

* * *

Pain.

That was the first thought that came to Tony's mind when he woke up. He was in pain in his left shoulder and the back of his left leg. Why was he in pain?

_Body. Gunshots. Phone calls. Black combat boots._

_Where's Papa?_

Tony groaned as he lifted his head and opened his eyes a crack. He was in a dark room, but it smelled of pristine, of cleaning products and lack of use. Suddenly, everything was white. Tony couldn't explain how; everything just changed from black to white in a matter of seconds. A blurry gray figure came into his view, and he blinked to try and see the person clearer.

There was stinging across his cheek before he could focus, and he found himself looking at a tiled floor. "You don't behave, you get hit," the man said in a thick accent that Tony couldn't place. "Where's Gibbs and Blackadder?"

Tony looked up at the man, who was sneering down at him. He didn't look like a nice man, so Tony didn't say anything. The stinging repeated itself, and Tony moved his head back to its original position. "You understand English. I know you do."

No response. The sting repeated on the other cheek.

"Answer me!"

Another sting. Nothing. And another sting. And another. And another.

Tony didn't comprehend where he was. All he could think about was that this man was much like his dad when he got drunk, ready to hit at the first sign of disobedience and only asking questions later. The man morphed into the shape of his dad, and Tony recognized that this wasn't healthy, humans didn't just change shape, and he was probably sick or at the very least still very injured. He assessed his injuries, and found his shoulder and leg bandaged. So they were saving him for later. He probably hadn't gotten any new blood, though, so they weren't trying too hard.

Good to know.

Hours passed by in a blur, and Tony just sat there, not even recognizing the questions he was being asked anymore. He felt far, far too little to form words in a coherent sentence. Eventually the mean man left and Tony sat there, absorbing the stinging sensation in his cheeks.

The door opened again after a minute-or was it an hour?-and the mean man walked in with a woman. "Agent DiNozzo, my name is Laurette Alessi. I was once a...friend of your boss, Agent Gibbs. However, somewhere along the line, our interests changed, and he stole something very important from me. So now, in order to get that very important thing back, I need to know: Where are Agent Gibbs and Agent Blackadder?"

Tony opened his mouth, and croaked out his honest answer. "I...I dunno."

The stinging started up again worse than ever across his face.

"That is not an acceptable answer, Agent DiNozzo. Where is he?"

"I don't know," Tony repeated, still feeling very small.

The stinging happened again and Tony turned, biting the hand that had hit him. The man yelled obscenities that would make a sailor wash the man's mouth out with soap. The man pulled out a gun and put it against Tony's head, cocking it. The woman stayed perfectly calm. "Agent DiNozzo, if you cannot provide us with an answer, I am afraid I will have to have you shot."

Tony pulled on the restraints he was in desperately, causing pain to flare up in his shoulder, and he writhed in pain. His eyes stung furiously, but he was attempting to keep his tears at bay. "I'm tellin' the truth! I don' know!"

The man laughed. "Not an option."

"I don' know where he is, I really don'! P-p'ease, don' shoot me! I don' know!" he sobbed. He was too little to die! And he had promised Papa that he wouldn't! He just wanted to go home, and lie on Papa's couch and watch _I Love Lucy_  with him until dawn. If all of that wasn't enough, he could feel warmth in his crotch area, and he cried harder when he realized he had _wet himself_  in fear in front of the _bad guys_. "I-I-I d-don' kn-know..."

He was sure the man was going to shoot him, but the woman held a hand up and walked over to him moving the cold metal away from his face. "Well you have gotten yourself quite worked up. I think we should take a break for now and come back to this later, hm?"

Tony didn't reply, mortified into silence by his adult side, and shaking with terror from his little side. The woman touched his cheek in what could be described as a maternal way before turning to the man. "Clean him up. And put him in one of the diapers we have lying around from previous...guests, will you? I don't want urine across my floor all the time."

The man made an indignant noise as the woman walked out, before roughly grabbing Tony by the hair and growling, "If you try to escape while I deal with your mess, I'll shoot you."

"I-I won'," Tony promised.

The man silently released Tony and calmly threw him off to the side of the room, before leaving the room and returning with a mop and some bleach solution. Tony sat up and whimpered, rubbing his head. He watched the man clean up his mess, having nothing else to do. He could feel his pee cooling on his pants and underwear and squirmed. This was _really_  uncomfortable.

It only got worse, however, when the man left and returned again with a diaper, and reached for Tony's belt. Tony shied away and the man growled. "I _am_  allowed to shoot you if you act up, you realize?"

The boy stilled and closed his eyes as this complete stranger stripped him of his pants and underwear, wiped him down, and put a diaper on him. " _Someone_  is just a big baby, eh?" the man asked with a cruel laugh. "Be good and stay right where you are for me until I come back."

The man laughed and walked out of the room, while Tony tried his best to be very still.

* * *

Gibbs and Viv reached the crime scene in record time. Viv looked around and tsked. "Those crime scene techs from Metro never got here. Where _are_  they?!"

"Worry about that later," Gibbs ordered. "Tony's our first priority."

"Right," Viv said, inspecting the scene.

It was on the side of a road, with the body lying in a ditch by some bushes. Gibbs looked around. Tony would be standing by the road so the techs could see him, but he'd want to stay by the crime scene...he stopped. There was a sizable amount of blood by the bushes. "Viv, we're going to need a sample of that blood, to verify it's Tony's," Gibbs said. His voice almost broke as he did. He was so shaken up about what happened with Tony. He couldn't lose another of his kids.

Not again.

He looked at the pool of blood. Tony had said he was distracted before he was shot, so he was probably shot from the back. He turned his back to the blood spray, saw a cluster of trees off the side of the road maybe 20 feet away. He walked over, putting on gloves as he did to inspect the area. He slipped through the trunks and found the perfect spot for a professional hitman to wait for the exact right moment to strike. He also found 2 shell casings on the ground, and bagged them both. Upon further inspection, he didn't find anything else he could use as evidence, not even gunshot residue on anything near the gun when it might have been fired. Whoever they were dealing with, these people were pros.

Gibbs' stomach twisted at the thought that he might be dealing with the Alessi family. Thoughts of finding Tony's lifeless body invaded his mind and he couldn't shake them, much as he tried to. He walked out of the trees and back to Viv, hoping she found something else. She held up 2 bullets, though she looked sick as she did so. "Found the bullets that hit Tony. One's got more damage than the other, meaning one probably hit bone or something else to damage it, the other only dealt with tissue. Which means Tony might only have one serious wound to deal with, and the other could be a graze."

"We should prepare for the worst, Viv, not the best," Gibbs said, agitated.

"I know we should prepare for the worst. But we should also hope for the best," she replied, taking the bag with the shell casings from Gibbs. "I have a sample of the blood, and the surrounding mud so that Abby knows which is which, and I'm sure she can run the bullets whether or not there are prints. Also, I found a boot print. Took a picture with its measurements, so that could narrow our suspect pool depending on the shoe size. Other than that...this crime scene is pretty clean, Gibbs. We're not dealing with amateurs."

"I know," Gibbs sighed. "And I don't like it. We're taking these back to Abby right away. Metro PD obviously doesn't care enough about this body to send someone down to secure it right away, and if they ask why we weren't there, we can explain an agent got shot while waiting for them, and that takes priority."

"Morrow won't like that," Viv warned.

"Screw what Morrow likes, I'm getting my agent back. Let's take these to Abby, and fast."


	2. Chapter 2

Tony didn't know how long he had been sitting against the wall of his little cell, just that he couldn't hold off his bodily functions any longer and had messed himself while he waited for someone to come get him. It was now cold and itched at him, but he didn't want to get hurt again, so he didn't move. Not even to shift to a more comfortable position. He stayed curled up, eyes on the door in case someone walked in.

Sleep was staking a claim on him when the door opened again and the lady from before walked in. She was holding a tray with water and a small sandwich on it. "How long have you been sitting there?" she asked.

Tony blinked back the sleepiness clouding his head and shrugged.

The lady tutted and walked over, setting down the tray. "Poor boy. Did the mean man tell you to stay where you were? I've told him not to do that before, he never listens."

Tony eyed the tray suspiciously. He hoped the food was for him, Papa would be mad if he didn't eat today. He had been getting better at eating regularly, and didn't want to lose his progress.

The lady followed his eyes and laughed. "Oh, of course! Where are my manners? You must be hungry, eat up! It's all yours!"

Tony reached out for the sandwich and downed it hungrily. He got half of it on his face, whatever sticky sauce or condiment that was in it covering his lips and chin, and crumbs sticking in it. The lady tutted. "Wow, you sure get messy when you're hungry! Drink the water, and then we can get you cleaned up."

Suspicious, but not willing to pass up a chance for water, Tony guzzled the glass. He started feeling dizzy within moments. He realized with a lurch that they were planning on moving him somewhere else and he didn't know how he could tell Papa he was here. The glass slid from his hands and shattered on the floor, and the lady jumped. "Ah! If the drug's working that fast, you must not be nearly as heavy as your physical said you were. Hang on, someone will be right over to clean this up."

As soon as the lady was gone, Tony took one of the shards and pricked himself in the finger, and turned to the wall, dragging his finger down it, making sure the blood got on the wall. If Papa came here, he could get Abby to test the blood for DNA and see it was Tony's. His hand dropped to his side and he fell to the floor right next to the shards with a sigh. Rohypnol. Of course, he'd have to be conscious but not be able to say anything, and not remember anything when the drug got out of his system.

The man from before came in and slung Tony over his shoulders. "Hmph. Let's go, before the clean-up crew gets here. If it were up to me, I'd leave you here to die from bleach fumes."

Tony tried to form a reply, but his mouth wouldn't work and his eyes were getting half-lidded. He made a guttural sound in the back of his throat. The man laughed. "Aw, how cute. Trying to talk, eh? Maybe cry for help? That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard."

He was moved down corridor after corridor and into the open air, in the middle of the day, causing Tony to squint in the bright light. He was thrown into the trunk of a car and was driven away. He must have dozed off during the ride because the next thing he knew he was being lifted out of the trunk and carried into a house in a suburb. He looked around as much as he could when he was placed on the sofa. The curtains were drawn over the windows, and there were some miscellaneous toys scattered on the floor that looked like they'd be fun to play with. Before Tony could try and get over to them, though, something cold was placed around his ankle. He looked toward it and finds a shackle with a long chain attached to it. He mentally frowned. Why was he being chained up when he had things to occupy himself with anyway?

He didn't get to ponder these thoughts for long, however, as sleep soon claimed him again.

* * *

Gibbs walked through the hall leading to the abandoned interrogation room slowly, gun drawn. He and Viv and a few other agents were with him, all of them ready to break Tony out of this prison he was being held in. Thoughts were running through Gibbs' head a mile a minute, and he couldn't settle on one to focus on. What was going through his head most, though, was the ending of his check-up on Abby.

_"The blood is definitely Tony's, Gibbs. I was able to isolate what was blood and what was dirt thanks to Viv's samples, and he wasn't given any drugs around the time he was shot. I couldn't get any finger prints off the bullets, and the gun was reported stolen a few months ago. You're looking for a 9 millimeter, though. Nothing fancy, but it'll still tear through someone's shoulder. Um...based on blood loss, Gibbs, Tony would need medical attention. Not, like, a transfusion, but he would definitely need some patching up." Abby's breathing was getting ragged. "And the boot didn't help much either. Men's size 10. Nothing unusual about the actual brand, either. Typical combat boots you could find at a shoe store in the mall. Gibbs...you'll make sure Tony's okay, won't you?"_

_Gibbs kissed her forehead and smiled more confidently than he had felt. "'Course I will, Abs."_

Now he was putting that to the test. An anonymous tip went to the local police that a man fitting Tony's description had been carried into an old, structurally unstable police building. It would be the perfect place to watch a victim, and make sure that they didn't die before you got the information you needed out of them. The mere thought made Gibbs feel sick. Tony _had_  to be safe, he _had_  to.

Gibbs reached the door and opened it slowly, checking the inside.

There was a light still on in the unusually white room. There was one chair, with cut rope bunched behind it, and a tray with a plate and a smashed glass on the floor by a wall. The wall had a thin line of blood on it, and Gibbs thought grimly that Tony had to be leaving them a blood trail. No one was in the room, so he stepped in and inspected it further. His first look around provided almost all the information there was to be gotten in the room. The only thing he had initially missed was drops of blood surrounding the chair. His jaw clenched. If this was Tony's blood, whoever had taken him would wind up wishing they were dead when he was through with them. The one thing saving him from going on a rampage was the fact that this wasn't enough blood loss to kill Tony, and if it _was_ his blood, that meant that he had received medical attention and wasn't dying. Corpses didn't lose blood when they were beaten.

"Clear," he said sullenly, and the people behind him swarmed into the room, marking evidence and taking pictures.

Viv stood next to him and together they surveyed the room while an agent guarded the entrance. Suddenly someone yelled, "Freeze!" and there was the sound of something clattering to the floor and footsteps. Gibbs sprinted out of the room, as did Viv after she ordered everyone else to keep working. Gibbs chased after the two figures covered from head to toe in hospital scrubs, and took one of them down just as Viv emerged from an approaching corridor, gun pointed at the other figure.

"Clean up crew?" Viv guessed.

The figure she had the gun pointed at nodded. "Please don't shoot, we were just hired to clean up here! We didn't know this was some crime scene or somethin'!"

Gibbs cuffed the figure he had tackled and approached the other one. "Who hired you?" he asked.

"I-I don't know! I never got contact information, just an address and a wire transfer," the uncuffed figure said.

"Look," Gibbs growled. "You are about to be charged with obstruction and conspiracy of abduction unless you tell me who hired you."

"Woah, woah, woah. Abduction?! Someone got kidnapped?! We were told there was some sort of brawl that took place here and we just needed to clean up the blood. The lady never gave me a name, and I never asked."

"What lady?" Viv asked.

"I-I don't know!"

Viv grit her teeth. "She have an accent?"

The figure nodded frantically. "Yeah, yeah! It was faint, but it was there. She was definitely Italian."

Viv turned to Gibbs, horrified. "Alessi," she breathed. "It has to be the Alessi family."

"DiNozzo was on leave during that case! He shouldn't have to be caught up in this!" Gibbs exclaimed, shoving the figure he had cuffed toward Viv and grabbing the other one. "You're coming with us, and telling us, in writing, everything you know about this job. Got it?"

The figure nodded frantically. "Anything to stay out of jail, man. I'll do the chicken dance if it'll keep me from going to jail."

"Parolee?" Gibbs asked.

The figure sighed and nodded.

"Good luck explaining this away to your parole officer," Gibbs grunted. "Let's go."

* * *

When Tony woke up again, he was still on the couch, and the curtains were still drawn. He instinctively knew he had been out of it for a while, and judging by the light peeking from under the curtains, he would guess he'd been out of it since late last afternoon. He remembered being in the sun for a while, at least. He rolled off the couch and landed with a thud on the floor. He sat up, rubbing his head. He knew he should probably be big right about now, but he couldn't find it in him to age up. _Papa would be really mad if he were here_ , he thought.

  
_Well, Papa_ isn't _here, and even if he_ was _, he'd let me be little until I could age up again anyway_ , he reasoned back at himself.

He looked around him at the floor, intent on finding something to entertain himself. From the corner of his eye he spotted a pack of crayons, and he crawled over to inspect them. It was a 24 pack, so there was a good range of colors without it being overwhelming to choose one. He looked around for something to color _on_ , however, and found nothing at first. But there was a coffee table by the sofa he had yet to explore.

Since his head still felt a little fuzzy around the edges, Tony didn't risk standing up just yet and continued in his crawling on his way over to find a coloring book with an array of intricate drawings. Tony could have a lot of fun with this. He grabbed the coloring book and flipped through the pages until he saw one he liked, a boat sailing through cresting waves. He picked out all the different blues he could and began to color the waves, paying attention to detail. When Papa found him, he could give him this picture. Yeah, he should have time to get it pretty done before Papa found him. He hummed under his breath as he worked, not really any recognizable tune, just snatches of what he'd heard on the radio before.

He didn't notice that someone was standing behind him, watching him, until they sang his name. "Tony~"

With a start, Tony turned around to see the lady from before smiling down at him. "What?" he asked.

"You didn't hear me come in," the lady said. "I guess you really like to color."

Tony looked down at the picture and nodded, returning to coloring. "'S fun to do," he said noncommittally.

The lady sat down on the couch where Tony had been lying previously and smiled at him. "You're just like a really, really big kid, hm? That rather simplifies things a bit. Usually people I put in this position _don't_  take to it like a duck to water, but you seem rather comfortable just to color."

Tony didn't reply, just chose a color for the next part of the wave.

"I'd like to know you're listening to me, Tony."

"I jus' wanna color," Tony responded.

"Fair enough," the lady said. "Does lunch sound good in a bit?"

"Mm-hm."

"Anything specific that you might like?"

Tony paused in his coloring. "P--Doc says I don' eat enough. So just something filling."

"I can do that," the lady said, kissing his temple and moving out of the room. "Don't go anywhere!"

Tony waited a second to see if she would come back, before resuming coloring.

* * *

Gibbs paced the length of the bullpen the next day, agitated. There were 3 teams working on finding DiNozzo, since they now knew that it was tied in with the Alessi's and Morrow wanted to take out their influence and get a leg up over the FBI, since they had to share jurisdiction now that a federal agent was in danger. 1 of those teams was FBI, the other 2 were NCIS. And Gibbs couldn't sit still long enough to get any work done. He couldn't imagine not being able to go home and hear a knock on his door that let him know he was going to spend the night with his little boy. If he had to wait another day to find Tony, he doubted he could keep it together long enough to see the boy return safe and sound.

Another cup of coffee was gone, so Gibbs turned to Viv. "Find anything new from the statements? Any news from Abby?"

Viv shook her head. "No to both. The statements check out, both men have alibis for when Tony was abducted, and neither of them have seen Alessi, so we don't have enough for a warrant. Abby's been checking the evidence, and, as you already know, she verified the blood was Tony's, but beyond that, we don't have anything."

Gibbs growled. "Not good enough," he said. "Find something by the time I get back."

"Where are you going?" Viv asked, following him with her eyes.

"Autopsy. Gotta make sure of a few things, just in case Tony...doesn't make it back."

Viv paled and nodded.

Gibbs walked to the elevator and sighed on the way down to autopsy. He needed to release all the tension he had _some_ how, and since Tony wasn't around, he figured the next best thing would be talking to Ducky.

The second he walked in Ducky stopped writing and turned to see him. "I had a feeling you would come down here, Jethro," the ME said. "Would you care for any tea? I know it won't have the caffeine that coffee would give you, however I think you would find the last thing you need right now is more tension in your shoulders."

"I can't right now, Duck," Gibbs said with another sigh. "I'm too worried about Tony."

Ducky nodded. "You two have grown closer the more you have worked together. It isn't a surprise. He is about the age I imagine a biological child of yours might have been. I think that perhaps part of you sees him as the son you never had."

Gibbs chuckled darkly. "You're not wrong, Duck. And now that he's in danger, the thought of losing him, I just..."

Ducky stood and walked over to Gibbs. "Sit down. I'll get you that tea and we can talk."

Gibbs nodded and sat in the hair Ducky had vacated, as he watched his friend go to work at calming him down. But Gibbs' thoughts were miles away, at a scared little boy who was crying for his papa as he was tortured by one of the most ruthless criminal organizations he had seen in years.

He startled when Ducky placed a cup of tea in front of him, and Ducky winced sympathetically. "You have to believe that Anthony will be all right, Jethro. I have seen you work cases with less evidence than this and still get the victims out alive. If you give it your all like you always do, I have no doubt Anthony will be back with us in 1 piece in no time at all."

"Thanks, Duck," Gibbs said, taking a sip of the tea. "Now if only I could find it in myself to believe that."


	3. Chapter 3

Tony had lost track of how long he had been in this house. He had counted 7 different times when it would get to be nighttime behind the curtains and he'd pretend to sleep so the mean man didn't hurt him while he watched, but after that he just couldn't find it in him to care. He got 3 meals a day, and the people who would come and go in the house would sometimes take him to the bathroom so he could get a diaper change before a rash set in. And he got lots and lots of time to color. During the entire time he was in the house, he stayed little out of fear of what might happen otherwise. It was some morning after Tony had stopped counting how many days had passed when someone came into the house who he recognized. The kid was scrawny, and worked on the floor below him and the team in HR. Tony had been down there to talk with him once or twice about flirting too much with his coworkers. If he remembered, the kid's name was Francis. "Tony?!" the man asked in an incredulous whisper when he walked in the house.

Used to hearing his name and not being expected to respond because Francis wasn't the mostly nice lady or the very mean man, Tony glanced up from his coloring for a few seconds before returning to it again. He was on his 4th picture, he thought. Each of these took several days to get right, and each of them were gonna be for Papa or Viv, a thank you for when they found him.

"It _is_  you!" Francis said, walking over. "Man, I thought I was in for it when I was called here; one of my dates gone awry. The woman who lives here, she's into some freaky stuff. But that's not the point! You've been MIA for _2 weeks_ , man! Have you been here the whole time?"

Tony shook his head and forced himself to sound adult. "Just most of it. I'm chained up, don't have a way out."

Francis inspected the chain attached to Tony's ankle. "Yeah, that looks like Laurette's work. Don't worry, I know the address of this place. I can tell Agent Gibbs where you are when I get back to work."

Tony looked up at the mention of Papa. He wanted more than anything to leave and just snuggle with Papa for a few days. He didn't know the last time he had received positive human contact. "Please hurry," Tony said urgently.

The nice lady came in from the kitchen and smiled when she saw Francis. "Ah, there you are. Like my newest piece of work? He took to my whims like a duck takes to water, and his only condition is that he gets fed regularly. Aside from that he just...colors and talks to the toys."

"Very...impressive," Francis said, turning to the lady. "Why am I here?"

"I wanted to talk business with you," the lady said. "Come on, in the kitchen, away from the young ears."

Francis cast one last look at Tony before going into the kitchen with the lady. Tony watched him go, trying to puzzle out what he was going to do. But in little space, it was hard for him to make adult connections. So he turned back to his coloring and continued marking the floral design on the teapot for Viv. Francis came back to the living room and tapped Tony on the shoulder. "It was nice meeting you...uh...?"

Tony knew that Francis was pulling wool over the lady's eyes and glanced over like Francis wasn't the most interesting person he had seen in 2 weeks. "Tony."

"Tony," Francis said. "Nice meeting you, Tony."

Francis left and Tony went back to drawing, feeling a little lighter at the thought that Papa would know where he was very soon.

More people came and went that day, and Tony realized that the lady and the mean man had decided that he wouldn't try to escape if they let people in. That thought made his tummy twist uncomfortably, and he knew that he had to do something about that sooner, rather than later.

That night, the mean man was watching him while the nice lady was making him dinner. The man was staring at him, daring him to do something other than finish his next coloring page. Tony looked up at him and stuck his tongue out at the man, giggling, which made the man go a funny shade of red. "Alessi!" he hollered into the kitchen.

The nice lady stuck her head out of the kitchen and leveled Tony with a _look_. "Tony, are you being good?"

Tony nodded with the sweetest look he could muster on his face. The nice lady then leveled the _look_  at the mean man. "Zack, honestly. He acts like a child, what do you expect?"

"I still don't like it, Alessi," the man grumbled. "He's a brat of a kid."

"Well, he _was_  a cop. Worse, he was a _navy_ cop. Those ones are always entitled."

Tony pretended to not be listening to the conversation, even though her words stung. The more he pretended to not be listening, the more he could actually hear. But he wasn't evidently going to hear much today, because the lady went back into the kitchen.

  
_CRACK! CRACK CRACK!_  Gunshots sounded outside the house. Someone screamed. The mean man pulled out a gun and drew the curtain back just a fraction, so he could look outside, quickly putting the curtain back in its place. He swore. "Alessi! We've got company!"

The lady came out of the kitchen with a gun after half a minute. "You make sure the brat can't get away, and then we can leave through the back. I'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

The man nodded and the lady skulked out the back. The man came over and gave the chain on Tony's ankle a good hard yank so that the boy yelped. "Yeah, that'll do nicely," he said. "They'll shoot you the second they get in here. I'm sure your blood will pretty up your final picture."

Tony whimpered, and the man was gone. Someone banged on the door. "NCIS! Open up!"

  
_Viv_. Tony looked at the picture he had been working on, it was done anyway, he had just been making a good background, and that was arguably finished as well. He crawled toward the door, but the chain on his ankle caused him to stop short. He couldn't reach the door.

The banging got more frantic. "NCIS!" she repeated.

"Viv!" Tony yelled through the door. "I can't get to the door!"

"Tony?!" Viv asked. "What happened?! Are you hurt?!"

"I'm chained to a wall, Viv! I can't reach the door, the chain's too short!" Tony yelled back. Even feeling little, he was good at passing for big.

"Stand back and away from the door, Tony, I'm going to kick it in!" she yelled.

Tony scrambled out of the path of the door just as it flew off its hinges. Viv ran into the room and froze when she saw Tony. Though, in fairness, Tony would probably be shocked to see himself too. He was still stuck in the button-up shirt he had been wearing when he was abducted, blood and mud and all, and was wearing nothing but a diaper and the shackle on his lower half. "Tony," Viv whispered. "What happened to you?"

"...I got shot and abducted?" Tony tried. Honestly, he didn't know how to respond. "I made you some pictures, you wanna see?"

"...Sure. Gimme a sec to clear the house?"

Tony nodded. "Oh, and the people who took me left just before you got here. I think they went through the backyard?"

Viv nodded and relayed that information to whoever else was out there through her earwig. It took her 5 minutes at most to clear the house, before she came back to the living room and sat down on the floor next to Tony. "Um. So. You've been gone 2 weeks, great to have found you, get you back, blah blah blah, you know the rest. What have you been doing in that time? Just coloring?"

"Mostly," Tony said, not offering any clarification.

Viv nodded. "So, what have you colored? I know coping mechanisms can be...private, but you said you could show me at least some?"

Tony opened the book to the first page he had colored for Viv, a garden scene where he had paid extra attention to the detail in the flowers and the fountain in the middle. "This one's one of yours," Tony said. "As a thank-you for finding me."

"Wow," Viv breathed, running a hand over the page. "You had to have a lot of time on our hands to get this detailed. Wait. _One_ of mine? There's more?"

"One more," Tony said, flipping through the book until he found the teapot page. "This one's for you as well."

Viv looked over it with here eyes, not saying anything, though her jaw was wide open. "This is...fantastic, Tony. I'm sorry you had so much time to work on it, but it's beautiful."

Tony chuckled. "Eh. It's fine. Just be glad I had lines to work in. I can't draw for crap."

Viv burst out laughing. "Glad to see your humor's still there, Tony! C'mon, let's take a look at that shackle. Gibbs will be here any minute, and he'll want you free of this thing."

Tony went quiet when he heard Papa's name. He was so glad to be almost out of here, but he just realized he had gone little at a crime scene, and had been little most of his time here, which was Not Allowed. Was he gonna be in trouble?

Viv looked up at him sharply when he went quiet. "Tony? What's wrong? Gibbs won't mind seeing you like this, you did what you had to so you could survive. Don't worry."

  
_What I had to do. Right, the only reason I didn't get shot was 'cause I was little, wasn't it? Papa won't be mad_. Tony nodded and moved his ankle so Viv could inspect the shackle. "Yikes, this is a good one," Viv commented. "I can't get you out of this without picking the lock, which could take some time."

"Better start now, then," Tony said.

Viv nodded and pulled a bobby pin out of her hair, forcing it in the keyhole of Tony's shackle. "We'll get you out of here, Tones," Viv muttered. "I know we will."

There were frantic footsteps on the pavement outside and Papa rushed into the room. He looked like he might faint when he set eyes on Tony. "Tony," he breathed. "Are you okay?"

Tony nodded subtly. Now that Papa was here it was all he could do not to dissolve into a ball of tears. "I made you some pictures. Wanna see?"

Papa crouched down in front of Tony, nodding. "Sure. Viv, Johnson's team caught 2 people by an old abandoned playground a couple blocks from here, a man and a woman. So far, only the man has said that he came from this direction, but we're holding onto them for now, and maybe Tony can identify them. The rest are still on the lookout, just in case."

Tony waited patiently for Papa to finish talking, and then practically shoved the coloring book in Papa's face, showing him the second picture he made, a wolf pack wandering through the woods. "I kinda thought it was like us," Tony explained, tapping the wolves.

Papa nodded, running a hand over the page appreciatively. "That's amazing, Tony."

Tony grinned. "If you think that's good, you'll like the other one I made for you even better!" He proudly flipped the page to the first picture he did, the boat in the waves. "It's your boat on its maiden voyage!"

Papa sucked in a soft breath of air when he saw it, eyes raking over the page. Tony had put his best effort into it, blending the crayon wax where he could, and choosing the colors carefully to have the boat stand out among the waves, with the sun high in a crystal-clear cerulean sky. He had even lightly taken the green crayon and changed the tint of some of the waves. "Tony..." Papa said. "This is...beautiful. It's a masterpiece. Really. I'm going to have to frame it and hang it up as a reference for how to make my boat in my basement, if you'll let me."

"It's _your_  picture," Tony said. "It's a thank you, 'cause I knew you'd come to rescue me."

There was a metallic _click_  and the shackle came off Tony's ankle. "Ha! Got it!" Viv exclaimed. "We can get you out of here, Tony!"

Tony looked between the two of them. "You mean it?" he asked.

Papa nodded. "Yeah. C'mon, kid. Let's get you home."

  
_Home_. Tony liked the sound of that.

* * *

2 weeks. It had been 2 weeks since Tony had gone missing, and Gibbs was a wreck. He had barely been home, only leaving NCIS to grab a fresh pair of clothes and drive around aimlessly through the night in the hopes that his phone would ring and Viv would have some new information. He was sitting at his desk, a numb shell of the man who he used to be, already grieving the loss of his second kid. The FBI was going to mark this a cold case, and Morrow would want them to do the same, and presume Tony dead. But if there was a chance Tony were alive, assuming him dead would be the final nail in his coffin, and Gibbs wasn't ready for that to happen yet.

He didn't even notice when, right before his lunch break, a scrawny kid from HR approached his desk in a flurry. "A-Agent Gibbs?" the kid stuttered.

Gibbs flicked his eyes up to the kid and snarled out a reply that sounded vaguely like the word, "What?"

"S-sorry, Agent Gibbs, b-but I know where Agent DiNozzo is!"

Gibbs froze. Viv looked up from the papers she was rifling through. It seemed like the entire office went silent. "You...know where he is?" Gibbs repeated.

The kid nodded frantically. "I saw him this morning when I went to meet with this girl I dated for a while, and who I was working on a business model with. H-he was in her house!"

"This girl's last name wouldn't happen to be Alessi, would it?" Viv asked.

"Laurette Alessi. I thought it was just a coincidence that her last name was the same as that nightmare from months back, but apparently it's not," the kid explained. "Agent Gibbs, Tony's alive. He's being held captive, but he's alive!"

Gibbs couldn't remember what happened after that, just that he and some other people made plans to raid the house that was holding Tony. The next thing he remembered, he had on a bulletproof vest and a gun in hand, and he and several other agents were skulking down the street of a suburb just outside a naval base. To think, that all this time Tony was right nearby, and they didn't know...it made him feel sick.

There were 2 men approaching them down the street. Big men, with weapons. One of the agents next to him fired off 3 shots, sending the men to the ground. A woman screamed from a nearby window. And suddenly everything was chaos. The team supposed to be approaching the house scattered to fend off attackers, and only one person got in. Viv. Gibbs was busy fighting off several people who had come outside to investigate when he heard Viv's voice in his ear. "Tony's here! He says the people who captured him took off through the house's backyard, Johnson, see if your team can find them!"

"Get back in your houses!" Gibbs barked at the people questioning him. Reluctantly, they left.

"This is Johnson. We have a man and a woman apprehended by an old playground approximately 2 blocks from the location. We'll need Agent DiNozzo to confirm if these are the ones we're looking for, until then we'll keep an eye out for any other suspicious behavior."

Gibbs braced himself and rushed toward the house. He needed to see Tony, and this might be his only chance to get inside. He raced up to the steps, and made his way into the house. He froze when he saw Tony. His boy was covered in dirt head to toe, and he was still wearing the shirt he had the day he had been taken, but it was now more brown from dried blood and dirt than white. He was also wearing a nearly filled diaper, which made his blood boil. If those people allowed his little boy to get a diaper rash, they would never see the light of day again. But overwhelmingly, he was just glad that Tony was alive. Tony was there.

They talked, and Gibbs was just so glad they could chat about something as mundane as coloring. Viv was working on unlocking Tony's chains, and Gibbs was forever grateful that she could handle that while he made sure Tony was okay. And the pictures were absolutely stunning. Tony might not draw well, but he had a detective's eye which allowed him to spot colors that would blend well with each other, even if most people wouldn't think so before they saw it. Gibbs smiled when Tony showed him the picture of the wolves. The team really was like a pack, in a way.

But it was the picture of the boat that took Gibbs' breath away. The attention to detail, and the sheer amount of love and trust Tony had put into that picture broke Gibbs' heart. All Tony's emotions were there, as readable to Gibbs as words in a cold case file, and he knew he would treasure this picture forever.

Then Viv got the chain off of Tony's ankle, which felt like the icing on the cake. "Ha! Got it!" Viv exclaimed. "We can get you out of here, Tony!"

Tony looked between them, excited and just a tad bit frantic in his expression. "You mean it?" he asked.

Gibbs nodded. "Yeah. C'mon, kid. Let's get you home."

Tony nodded eagerly, and stood with some help from Gibbs and Viv. He walked outside, leaning on Gibbs, and Gibbs knew that any questions the agency had would have to wait for tomorrow; he doubted Tony would stay awake longer than it took for Gibbs to get him to a car. But when Gibbs kept moving for a step while Tony stopped in his tracks, he knew something was up. He followed Tony's line of sight to a police car, the police car that was holding the two people Johnson's team had gotten. "That's them," Tony breathed. "That's them! They're the ones who took me and tortured me! Why are they still here?!"

"Hey, hey, Tony. Easy, kiddo. They can't hurt you anymore."

Tony was shaking like a leaf and Gibbs rubbed his back gently even as he looked up at Johnson. "That admissible in court?"

"You bet it is," Johnson said. "These two are going down. Take Agent DiNozzo home, clean him up, and we'll question him tomorrow."

Gibbs nodded. "That works. C'mon, Tony. Back to my place. We have some _I Love Lucy_  reruns to get through. Want to go home?"

Tony started laughing and sobbing at the same time. "I-I thought you'd n-never a-ask."

Gibbs smiled and led Tony to Gibbs' car. "Let's go. It's way past your bedtime."

"Thanks for rescuing me, Papa," Tony whispered once he was inside.

Gibbs kissed Tony's forehead. "Hey, that's what papas are for."


End file.
